Become a 10-second Scorsese with Snapchat’s new glasses

Snapchat was on the ropes after Instagram pretty much ripped it off in a major update rolling out its Stories feature over the summer. The Venice, CA-based social giant is answering this challenge by unveiling a new wearable camera that enables its users to send 10-second videos (called snaps) to their feed without having to raise their phones.

Spectacles is Snapchat’s first hardware product, and it is essentially a pair of stylish sunglasses fitted with dual cameras positioned at the hinges on either side of the glasses’ lenses. These cameras have a 115-degree field of view, and a light ring around the left lens lights up letting everyone know that you’re in the process of capturing a snap.

Once the video has been captured, it is sent you Snapchat where it is stored in your memories. You can then opt to share them with the world.

Because a phone camera takes too long

Spectacles solves a common problem with in-the-moment video capture. The time it takes to take out your phone, fire up the Snapchat app, and switch the phone’s camera on is just long enough to miss that once-in-a-lifetime moment. With Spectacles, you can start recording with a tap.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Spectacles are expected to be available this fall at a price of $130. The glasses themselves are a unisex design, and based on the material on the official Spectacles website, will come in a variety of different color options.

Glasses are becoming a popular medium for wearable technology. They’re placed in a position that makes them optimal for image capture from a first-person perspective, can be fitted with optical output for a heads-up-display effect, and have a central position on your person that makes them useful for motion and fitness trackers.

Where Google Glass failed to achieve pique interest among consumers, this new generation of wearable glasses could have what it takes to bridge the gap between a centuries-old technology and the electronic genius of the future.